In Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, 47-year-old father V. T. Shijo ended his life on August 3, 2025, after being unable to secure funds for his son’s engineering college admission. Police discovered his body hanging in the Moongampara forest. His son had just earned a seat in an engineering college in Tamil Nadu, but the family lacked the necessary admission fees. According to relatives, financial hardship had plagued the household for years. Shijo’s wife, Lekha Raveendran, an aided-school teacher, had been waiting for 12 years’ worth of salary arrears despite a court order for its release.
The suicide of V. T. Shijo has stirred emotional debates within Kerala’s legislative corridors, with opposition parties accusing the government of systemic apathy towards the financially weaker sections. Lawmakers have called for an immediate audit of pending salary arrears across departments, fearing that similar bureaucratic negligence could lead to more such tragedies. The incident has not only exposed flaws in financial disbursement but also highlighted the lack of a grievance redressal mechanism robust enough to escalate such cases before they spiral into personal disasters. There is mounting pressure on the government to institutionalise stricter timelines for executing court-ordered payments.
Shijo’s story has also resonated deeply with parent associations across the state. Many parents, especially those with children in higher education, have shared their own struggles in securing loans, scholarships, and sponsorships under tight admission deadlines. They argue that while Kerala boasts of high literacy and progressive educational policies, ground realities often betray these ideals. The perception that education remains a privilege for those with immediate financial liquidity has intensified calls for reworking fee structures, especially in professional courses like engineering and medicine where upfront costs often deter deserving candidates.
Social activists have underscored the need to revisit how admission processes place unrealistic time-bound expectations on students and their families. When a student earns an admission through merit, but is disqualified solely due to their inability to arrange funds within a stipulated period, it indicates a failure of the system. Activists are demanding a model where financial aid, loan processing, and payment deferrals are seamlessly integrated into the admission cycle, ensuring that no student is denied education due to transient financial hurdles. Shijo’s death, they argue, should catalyse this reform urgently.
Meanwhile, psychological associations in Kerala are urging the state to establish mental health crisis cells within educational institutions. The stress of competitive exams, combined with financial insecurities, creates a volatile mental health landscape for students and their families. Experts believe that timely counselling and access to mental health resources could serve as a crucial safety net for individuals facing similar pressures. While Kerala has implemented various student wellness programs, professionals argue that these need to be scaled, monitored, and adapted to cater to familial anxieties that extend beyond the student alone.
Financial Strain and a Court Order Ignored
Lekha’s appointment as a teacher had been confirmed by a court earlier in the year, and she began receiving regular pay starting February 2025. Yet, the pending arrears from the previous 12 years remained unpaid. The district education office allegedly failed to act promptly despite multiple reminders. Officials closed the file without resolution, further deepening the family’s distress. The mounting delays reportedly contributed to Shijo’s acute stress and despair as he struggled to meet admission deadlines amid bureaucratic inertia.
Suspensions in Wake of Tragedy
Following a departmental probe, the Kerala education department suspended three district education office staff members—two clerical officials and a superintendent—citing gross negligence. The headmistress involved in the delay has also been asked to step aside pending investigation. The general education minister expressed sorrow and pledged accountability, stating such administrative lapses leading to tragic loss cannot be tolerated. The disciplinary action aims to signal stringent enforcement of court directives and underscore officials’ responsibilities.
Mind the Admission Crisis
Self-financing engineering colleges across Kerala have raised broader concerns over admission delays stemming from inconsistent KEAM ranking processes. The curtailment in clarity may exacerbate student distress, as colleges risk losing top-performing students to institutions in other states. Meanwhile, families like Shijo’s face heightened pressure when provisional admissions hinge on rapid fee payment, often beyond their means. The ongoing admission tussle has revived debates on financial equity and procedural transparency within Kerala’s engineering education system.
Psychological Pressure and Mental Health Gaps
In Kerala, instances of suicide linked to financial strain, particularly related to education fees and family debt, reflect deeper societal and systemic woes. Victims often face stigma and isolation thereby lacking accessible support. Experts point to an urgent need for robust mental health infrastructure, including accessible helplines and community support services. Desperate families—like Shijo’s—often lack guidance and emotional safety nets, intensifying the risk of irreversible despair. Such tragedies underscore the intersection of economic hardship and mental health vulnerabilities.
Socioeconomic Inequity at the Core
Shijo’s case is emblematic of broader socioeconomic inequities. Despite court-ordered benefits, his family’s legal entitlements were effectively inaccessible. The high stakes of a single admission deadline spotlight distress for middle- and lower-income families across Kerala. When state-mandated processes falter and remedial mechanisms fail, vulnerable citizens bear the fallout. The tragedy rekindles debate on whether public institutions effectively serve the economically marginalized or perpetuate systemic neglect.
Trust in Administration Reaches Tipping Point
Community members and regional activists voiced outrage over apparent dereliction of duty by education officials. The victim’s father, a local farmers’ association member, publicly accused administrative staff of negligence. Civil society organizations demanded transparency in follow-up actions, including the probe report and disciplinary proceedings. There’s rising clamor for systemic reforms to prevent future breakdowns of legal process and administrative accountability. Shijo’s death highlights erosion of trust in governance systems where court directives remain unenforced.
Need for Suicide Prevention Frameworks
Stakeholders—including mental health professionals, educators, and NGOs—are advocating expanded suicide prevention training for school staff and community leaders. Accessible resources like helplines, counselor visits, and crisis intervention must be mainstreamed, especially in rural districts. Given Kerala’s prior experiences with education-related suicides, institutions need early warning systems. Empowering families to seek help and bridging communication gaps between authorities and citizens could avert future tragedies. This incident underscores the vital importance of a holistic support ecosystem.
Call for Educational Reform and Welfare Safeguards
Education sector experts warn that scenarios where children secure admissions but families can’t pay reflect structural failures. Calls are mounting for merit-based counselling, fee support schemes, and grace periods for economically disadvantaged candidates. Establishing financial counseling within education departments and linking needy students with scholarships or fee waivers could prevent similar heartbreaks. Kerala’s leadership may need to re-examine protocols to ensure that deserving students—especially from under-resourced households—are not penalised due to fiscal delays.
The tragedy has also sparked introspection within Kerala’s education department about bureaucratic culture and its human cost. Instances where files are left pending for months or years, especially when backed by court directives, expose a deeper rot in administrative accountability. Critics argue that digital governance initiatives, which were designed to expedite such processes, remain underutilized. Calls for mandatory digital tracking of file movements, time-bound resolution dashboards, and officer-level accountability mechanisms are gaining momentum, as public trust in manual bureaucratic procedures continues to erode.
Furthermore, debates have intensified regarding the responsibility of self-financing colleges in such crises. While these institutions operate with a degree of financial autonomy, their admission policies directly impact socio-economic equity in education. Activists are calling for regulatory frameworks that compel self-financing colleges to adopt provisional admission mechanisms with payment flexibility for students from economically weaker sections. Suggestions also include creating a state-sponsored admission guarantee fund, which can underwrite a student’s admission until their financial resources are arranged, thereby preventing last-minute disqualifications due to fee non-payment.
On a broader level, the incident has reignited discussions around Kerala’s reliance on judicial interventions for resolving employee-related disputes. While courts regularly pass orders favouring employees, the actual enforcement of these orders often gets mired in administrative apathy. Experts are urging the formation of a quasi-judicial compliance body specifically for monitoring implementation of court decisions in public employment cases. Such a body, they argue, could prevent situations where families like Shijo’s are driven to despair due to the disconnect between judicial mandates and administrative action.
The Kerala government, on its part, has pledged to conduct a comprehensive policy review following this tragedy. Officials have indicated plans to set up an emergency financial support system for families caught in bureaucratic bottlenecks. Additionally, discussions are underway to initiate a district-level grievance helpline directly linked to the Chief Minister’s office, enabling rapid redressal of critical cases. While these promises offer a ray of hope, civil society remains cautious, demanding transparent timelines and public accountability to ensure that these announcements translate into tangible, systemic reforms rather than remaining mere political rhetoric.
Looking Ahead with Compassion
While investigations and suspensions are underway, the broader tragedy remains unresolved. Shijo’s son lost both a father and educational opportunity, linked to institutional failure. Kerala’s education and administrative systems are at a critical juncture: whether to reinforce welfare safeguards or repeat cycles of neglect. The legacy of this incident will depend on systemic action—honouring court rulings, enforcing accountability, and ensuring that financial hardship doesn’t equate to loss of life or aspiration. A healing path demands empathy, efficiency, and structural reform.
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